Loris’ Obituary June 9, 1929 — February 15, 2019 Loris Katherine Ewing passed away peacefully in her sleep, at her adult family home in Carriage Lane, on Friday, February 15, 2019. Lorie Brownlee was born in Hibbing Minnesota, in 1929, and grew up on a farm outside of town. Lori never forgot her roots growing up on a farm – memories of milking the cow and mucking the stalls before school, using an outhouse until running water was installed in her teens, and showing up to school in the same five outfit rotation each week.
The lessons of hard work and thrift from the farm stuck with her the rest of her life. In 1952, she was married to her lifelong companion, Don Ewing. Together they had five children; their daughter, Sandy, and four sons, Mike (Cyndi), Dave (Diane), Jon (Vivian), and Pat (Karen).
Lorie was the ‘grease beneath the wheels’ that kept the household running while Don supported the family with his work at Boeing. And despite having no family around, Lorie managed to hold the fort down while Don went to school at night and worked full time. Don finished up his engineering degree just after their fifth, and youngest, child was born.
In 1962, Boeing transferred Don to Huntsville. Don had to go down ahead of time, so Lorie followed, travelling alone across country with the five kids and trailer in tow. When they returned to Seattle five years later, Lorie once again drove the family and trailer back.
While it was a difficult move to a new place, where they knew no one except for a few other Boeing families, Lorie remembered those years fondly. Lorie saw it as a chance to explore another part of the country and they took memorable trips to places such as Washington DC and Mammoth Caves, as well as their keeping up their yearly sojourn back to Minnesota. Lorie was a fastidious homemaker.
Dinner was always on the table at 5pm sharp and, in the spring, the house would be turned over and scrubbed from top to bottom. It was a point of pride to Lorie, that when her carpets were pulled up to be replaced, there was no dust to be found. In particular, she excelled at baking.
The kids, and grandkids, always knew where to look for her latest batch of Mounds Bars, Gingersnaps or Hobo Cookies. Even when using her recipes, no one else’s cookies ever turned out quite as good as hers. In another time, Lorie probably would have been an accountant.
Lorie was the family bookkeeper and financial analyst, and she kept track of every penny they ever earned. If the ‘books’ were off by even as little as 50¢ at the end of the month, she would spend hours figuring out the mistake. The kids knew better than to come home from the store without a proper accounting of the money spent & returned.
After her kids were grown, she utilized her head for numbers and provided free tax help for those in-need. Lorie kept her mind sharp by working on crossword puzzles almost daily and was the dominant winner at Rummy and Pinochle. When Lorie wasn’t busy working around the house, she kept her hands occupied by croqueting or knitting.
Over the years, she ended up making hundreds of afghans – first for family members – and then for those less fortunate. Lorie bowled and golfed for many years. In their empty-nester years, Lorie and Don took a yearly golf vacation with their son Dave, traveling around the Pacific Northwest exploring the many different golf courses that dot the countryside.
In her mid-forties, Lorie took up skiing so she could join her kids on the slopes and she once even hiked the Wonderland Trail with her boys’ scout troop. She hated every minute of it; she didn’t see why it was fun to cook on a camp stove and sleep in a tent when she had a perfectly good kitchen and bed at home. Lorie valued family above all else.
The kids have indelible memories of being packed into the family station wagon every summer for the cramped, 1600 mile drive to visit extended family in Minnesota. And Lorie and Don’s Fairwood home was often the family gathering spot for the Brownlee clan in the Seattle area, especially after Lorie’s mother came to live with them. Over the years, there were many, many cookouts at their home, with plenty of marinated flank steak, baked beans and shrimp pasta salad; often topped off by a rousing game of cards.
Lorie especially loved her babies. Before her back and hip started bothering her, she was always picking them up, trying to get her ‘fix’ of that ‘new baby’ smell. Lorie took special pride in her eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
She and Don went to many soccer games, volleyball matches, swim meets, and ballet & music recitals over the years to support her grandkids. It didn’t matter if they won or lost, she always thought that they were fabulous. Lorie was a lifelong Catholic with a deep and quiet faith.
She could be seen every Sunday, arriving at least ten minutes early, at St. Stephen’s – sitting in the front with kids in tow and, in her later years, seat cushion in hand. It was this quiet faith that helped see her through these last three long years of pain and suffering, and her family is comforted by the knowledge that she’s now in peace up in heaven.
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